


Sydrian Soulmate AU

by rhysands_highlady



Category: Bloodlines Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22323484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhysands_highlady/pseuds/rhysands_highlady
Summary: Everything you draw/write on your skin appears on your soulmate's
Relationships: Adrian Ivashkov/Sydney Sage
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

It started quite early in my life—the doodles—early enough that I don’t even have a memory of the first time they appeared on my skin. My father had scolded me for them despite the fact that I hadn’t drawn them. I had tried to scrub them off but it never worked. They always faded within a week. 

I was too young then to understand where the drawings had come from, but around age 10, my mom told me that they were from my soulmate. I still didn’t have a good idea what that meant. 

The drawings grew more intricate as I got older, sometimes crawling up my entire forearm. Zoe always told me how jealous she was that I had an artist as a soulmate. Carly had only had random phrases of things we’d assumed her soulmate was trying to remember. 

Over the years, I’d debated writing my phone number down on my palm as a way for him to contact me. I had always decided against it until today. 

Zoe had begged me to take her to this end of school party I’d been invited to. I didn’t usually go to these sorts of things since usually I didn’t get invited. But it was the last few weeks of high school and the host had invited the entire senior class. 

I still didn’t want to be here. None of these people had ever tried to talk to her in the last four years and they weren’t trying now. I trailed Zoe around the house as she chatted with people I knew but didn’t  _ know _ . I felt very out of place. 

As we walked into the kitchen, I spotted a sharpie on the counter that was presumably there for labelling people’s cups. That was when the idea struck me. 

I plucked the sharpie up off the counter and jotted down my phone number on my hand. I paused and then wrote,  _ Call me _ . 

I still had the remnants of drawings on my arm from a few days ago. These ones were flowers. Lilies and peonies and carnations…. all entwined together. He’d never drawn lilies until she’d gotten her tattoo last year to piss off her dad. Jared Sage had lost his mind when he realised it wasn’t just another of her soulmate’s doodles. It hadn’t taken him very long considering the tattoo is gold and on her cheek. 

“Hey, Sydney, this your sister?” Ian called from across the kitchen. I snapped my head towards his voice. I nodded with furrowed brows as I spotted my little sister next to him.

I opened my mouth to tell him to keep his hands to himself but my phone rang, interrupting my train of thought. I pulled it out and found it was an unknown number from Pennsylvania. Suddenly, I was regretting the note I’d written on my hand. 

The phone continued ringing in my hand until I decided to answer it. 

“Hello?” I said instinctively.

“Hey, soulmate, how’s it going?” a smooth male voice said on the other end of the line. I glanced at Zoe before heading towards the back door of the house. 

“Fine,” I said before realising how off-putting I sounded. “I mean—“ God, I was horrible at this. Maybe I should just hang up. 

“You alright?” 

I shook my head and leaned against the house, letting the cool night air brush against my skin. “I’m at a house party and it’s never really been my thing, but it’s sort of the last hurrah before graduation and I felt like I had to come. But no one’s talked to me all of high school so I’m not sure what reason they’d have to now which is why I’m currently outside while my freshman sister is talking to the people who have ignored me my whole life.” 

“That sounds shitty,” he said. He sounded like he genuinely cared about how I was feeling which was… new. “What’s your name, soulmate?”

“Sydney Sage.” 

I could hear the smile in his voice as he replied. “Nice to finally hear from you, Sage, after years of unreturned drawings.” I scoffed. “Except for the tattoo, I suppose. I’ll admit that was quite a shock.” 

“I’d forgotten you’d get it too, sorry,” I said quietly. 

“No, no, Sage, you misunderstood,” he said, “It’s quite lovely. I was just surprised since you hardly got a pen mark on your skin for over a decade and a half and then, bam! Permanent ink.” I laughed despite myself. 

We fell into a comfortable silence for a bit after my laughter faded. I could hear the pounding music coming from inside the house.

“What’s your name?” I whispered in the dark. I smoothed down my skirt to do something with my free hand.

“I’m Adrian.” It was like I’d gotten the answer to a question I’d been asking my whole life, which I suppose I had been. 

“Hi, Adrian,” I said, not knowing what else to say. 

“Hi, Sage,” Adrian said back. I debated telling him to call me by my first name but the way ‘Sage’ rolled off his tongue made my toes curl. 

Instead, I said, “You’re a very talented artist,” as I played with a loose thread on my blouse. 

“Only for you.” I doubted that, but it still made me smile as we continued talking into the night. 


	2. Chapter 2

_ Adrian _

—--

I ran a hand through my hair as I tried to figure out where I was going with this painting. It was nearing midnight, not that it really meant anything to me anymore. I was always up late into the night. 

I huffed and stood from my stool, heading to the kitchen for a glass of water. I paused at the mirror in the hallway to look at my tattoo, tracing it with my finger. My soulmate had gotten it about a year ago and while I didn’t mind it, it was very conspicuous. Then again so were the doodles I drew for her each week, the remnants of the most recent ones still on my left arm. 

I continued on to the kitchen and grabbed a glass of out of the cabinet, running a hand over my face. I filled my glass and leaned against the counter as I drank. I was glancing down at my arm, imagining what I would draw next, when I noticed numbers and a note on the back of my hand. 

It was a phone number with the words  _ call me  _ written below it. I blinked. I’d never known my soulmate to make any attempts at contact with me, but tonight she had. My heart sped up at the thought of finally getting to hear her voice. 

I’d spent years imagining what she’d be like, and now I was a bit terrified of actually talking to her. What if we ended up not getting along? Soulmates didn’t always work out in the long run. 

I went back and forth deciding whether to call her or not for about 30 seconds before picking up my phone and dialing the number on my hand. It rang for a while and I wondered if I’d called the wrong number but then she picked up. 

“Hello?” she said. She sounded as nervous as I felt inside but I kept it together and gave her my best Adrian Ivashkov greeting, ignoring the party sounds in the background. 

“Hey, soulmate, how’s it going?” I said, smirking to channel the smoothness I was sorely lacking. 

“Fine,” she said. My smirk faltered. Had that been too much? Was she already regretting this? She tried to recover with, “I mean—“ and I realised she was just as nervous as me. 

“You alright?” I asked hesitantly, not wanting to push anything. There was a bit of rustling before she answered. 

“I’m at a house party and it’s never really been my thing, but it’s sort of the last hurrah before graduation and I felt like I had to come. But no one’s talked to me all of high school so I’m not sure what reason they’d have to now which is why I’m currently outside while my freshman sister is talking to the people who have ignored me my whole life.” 

My heart ached, hating that she was feeling this way, that she had to be around these people who didn’t appreciate her. “That sounds shitty,” I said.  _ Great work, Adrian _ , I thought, running a hand through my hair. 

“What’s your name, soulmate?” I said, mustering up more of that Ivashkov charm. 

“Sydney Sage,” she said immediately. I smiled, leaning my head against a cabinet. 

“Nice to finally hear from you, Sage, after years of unreturned drawings.” She scoffed and my smile widened as I touched the tattoo that was on both of our cheeks. “Except for the tattoo, I suppose. I’ll admit that was quite a shock.” To my parents as well, but they brushed it off because  _ It’s just Adrian _ . 

“I’d forgotten you’d get it too, sorry,” Sydney said, sounding genuinely guilty and small. I shook my head. 

“No, no, Sage, you misunderstood,” I said, walking towards the living room to lay down on the couch. “It’s quite lovely.” I could’ve sworn her breath hitched. “I was just surprised since you hardly got a pen mark on your skin for over a decade and a half and then, bam! Permanent ink.”

She laughed and for those few moments nothing else mattered. We fell into a comfortable silence mostly because I was too in awe of her to think of anything else to say to her in that moment. I stared at the ceiling, listening to the sound of her faint breathing on the other end of the line. 

“What’s your name?” Sydney whispered, hardly louder than her breathing. God, her voice was like a song. 

“I’m Adrian,” I said, mentally hitting myself for not introducing myself sooner. 

“Hi, Adrian,” she said and I could hear the smile in her voice as she said it. I smiled too. 

“Hi, Sage.” 

She paused for a moment before speaking again. “You’re a very talented artist.” I wished I could see her face as she spoke. 

“Only for you,” I said, glancing over at my painting. I was sure she saw right through what I said, she was my soulmate after all. 

———

College orientation was not something I’d planned on doing again, but for Sydney… well I’d do just about anything for her. 

She didn’t know I was here. She thought I was at a little art school back home starting my last year of college, but here I was in NYC. I’d sent her a Snapchat full of hearts this morning with what I’m sure was an encouraging message. She hadn’t responded, but she usually didn’t. 

Sydney didn’t know enough about Snapchat to check the snap map to see where I was, but I turned it off anyway. I couldn’t have her accidentally revealing the surprise. She’d sent me her schedule for the day so I would know when would be a good time to call. Little did she know I was going to show up during her tour of the library. 

———

_ Sydney _

I was having a hard time not stopping to look at every book that caught my eye as we toured the library. I glanced down at my hand that Adrian had vicariously covered with hearts yesterday after our daily phone call, and smiled. I suddenly wished he was here. 

I spent too much of my time wishing he was with me. Since we’d first talked, Adrian had insisted on regular calls and texts. He often sent me messages throughout the day and they always made me smile. Zoe had been pestering me about a boyfriend because she’d caught me numerous times smiling like an idiot at my phone—which I hardly used before Adrian. 

I was trying to listen to what our guide was saying when someone spoke in my ear. 

“Fancy seeing you here.” I jumped and whipped around. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to process what—who—I was seeing. 

“ _ Adrian _ ?!” I blurted. “What—what are you doing here?” I glanced down at the flowers in his hands and looked him up and down as he spoke.

“I figured we might as well go to the same college, y’know?” Adrian said before gesturing around at the library. “So I enrolled here.”

“You— _ what _ ?”

“I—“ I huffed and shook my head as he began to repeat himself. He stopped and smiled. That smile made me melt, not that he knew that. 

“So, you transferred schools just to be close to me?” I said softly, not quite believing it. Adrian nodded, and for whatever reason I began to cry and threw myself into his arms. 

Adrian froze for a second, and I was terrified he’d realised this was all a mistake and we were one of those pairs of soulmates who aren’t really compatible. But then he wrapped his arms tightly around me, lifting me off the ground a bit as he pressed his face into my hair. 

I hadn’t realised how tall he was until he was standing in front of me. He had a good half a foot on me and I found that I didn’t mind it. Not when his embrace was so comforting. 

He smelled like the expensive cologne he always talked about wearing. How did I know? When he told me what cologne he wore, I went to the store to smell it so I could get a better idea of… well, of him. It smelled better on him than it had in the store though. 

Adrian was  _ here _ . Adrian had his arms around me. 

I sniffled and his arms loosened enough that I could pull back slightly to look at him. He pressed his forehead to mine, his brilliant green eyes staring into mine. 

“God, Sage, I thought you were beautiful in your pictures but now…” He trailed off and let out a breath, shaking his head slightly, as he looked me up and down the best he could in our current position. I was suddenly self-conscious of my outfit and my hair and my weight. But when he met my eyes again, my knees buckled at the desire and affection in his eyes.

I felt his breath against my face, his lips nearly touching mine. My eyelids drooped as he tilted his head ever so slightly closer. “Adrian, I—“

I was cut off by her campus tour guide. “Miss Sage? Are you coming?” She sounded very annoyed with me and Adrian stepped away, but looked over my shoulder at the tour guide. I grabbed his hand, keeping him close before taking the flowers from him with a smile. 

Adrian looked disappointed which I suppose was because he thought I was going to leave him for my tour. On the contrary. 

I turned to the tour guide. “No, sorry.” She rolled her eyes and continued on with the group of other freshman. 

When I looked back at Adrian, he was grinning. “Sydney Sage skipping out on her college orientation.” He shook his head as he blew out a breath, and I rolled my eyes. “Not something I expected.” I stepped a little closer to him. 

“Thank you for the flowers,” I said, holding up the bouquet a bit. 

“Anything for my soulmate,” Adrian said. His voice was full of its usual snark, but the look on his face showed he meant what he said. The brush of his knuckles across my tattooed cheek had me sucking in a breath.

He looked down at our joined hands and brought them closer to his face. He seemed to be studying the hearts on my skin, tracing them with his own heart-clad hand. “Fascinating,” he murmured, hair falling over his eyes. His face was so contemplative, and I wondered how well I’d really gotten to know him over the phone and text. 

But then he looked up at me and I knew it didn’t matter. He studied my face again for a few moments, and I studied his—the sharpness of his jaw, the styled mess of his hair. 

Then he pulled me into the rows of stacks before cupping my face gently. “I’ve wanted to do this for months. No, years,” Adrian said before he kissed me. 

Bells went off in my head. Not like an alarm because this was not a bad thing and I was not waking up from a dream. Not like a school bell because my time was not up. They were closer to wedding bells I suppose. 

It was like everything made sense as soon as I felt his lips on mine, his hands sliding into my hair. I grasped his shirt with my free hand, though not tightly because I didn’t want to wrinkle it, just enough that I had something to hold on to. 

One of Adrian’s hands moved from my hair to wrap around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I was wrapping my arms around his neck when someone interrupted. Again. 

“Excuse me?” A girl said behind me. Adrian and I broke apart, turning to look at the girl. “Could you two please find somewhere that isn’t a library to stick your tongues down each other’s throats?” My cheeks flushed in embarrassment, but Adrian’s arm around me settled my rising anxiety. 

“Of course,” Adrian said smoothly before turning us around to walk towards the exit of the library. I leaned my head against his shoulder, wondering why I hadn’t tried to contact him sooner. 


End file.
